Main Roads sacking 'raises very serious questions'

By Paul RobinsonUpdated
Thu Sep 05 13:37:48 EST 2013

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Terry Hill lost his job shortly after the official opening of the Gracemere Overpass

ABC News: Paul Robinson

The Queensland Opposition says the release of right to information documents appears to confirm political interference in the sacking of the central region director of the Main Roads Department, Terry Hill.

Rockhampton MP Bill Byrne says a memo shows the department requested former politicians Robert Schwarten, Paul Hoolihan and Brad Carter not be invited to the opening of an overpass at Gracemere earlier this year.

However, the invitations had already been sent and Mr Hill lost his job soon after.

"There was an approval given within the department - that's what the documents reveal," Mr Byrne said.

"A good, efficient, young, subordinate bureaucrat got on and issued the invitations, lo and behold, very rapidly and by the time the Minister's office decided it wanted to vet the invitation list, they'd already gone out."

Mr Byrne says a selection committee report showed Mr Hill was ranked equal first out of 39 applicants when he reapplied for his job just before the ceremony.

"Now this raises very serious questions about the conduct of this Government and the petty and political way in which they run departments," he said.